Maruti Suzuki is believed to be working on a set of diesel engines in the range of 0.8-litres to 1.6-litres to power various vehicles in future and its current line-up as well. Maruti Suzuki uses the Fiat Multi-jet 1.3-litre diesel mill to power a variety of its cars in the present scenario but due to the size of the engine it has not been able to offer a wider range of the same. This new engine line up is expected to play host to all variants Maruti Suzuki currently has to offer.
It is learned that Maruti has been working on developing a smaller two-cylinder 800cc diesel engine for their Light Commercial Vehicle (codenamed Y9T) and the new generation A-star (codenamed YL7). The engines in the capacity of a three cylinder 1.2-litre unit, four cylinder 1.4-litre and 1.6-litre are expected to power a range of crossover cars and maybe a large SUV.
So far, Maruti Suzuki has been entirely dependent on Fiat for their diesel engines. People associated with the advancement of this diesel engine say that the Suzuki has had talks with Fiat before for a more powerful engine but the plans did not materialise back then.
With the advent of an independently produced diesel engine, prices of the Japanese automaker’s cars would evidently come down due to higher levels of localisation in production. So even though it is not expected to be a drastic drop in price, we can expect these cars to be priced aggressively amongst its competitors once the diesel engine production begins in-house.'
Source: ET